Time Does Not Fly
by Humphrey Loves Kate
Summary: Discontinued due to lack of readers. Open for continuation, but doubt anyone is interested in it..
1. Chapter 1

**Time Does Not Fly**

 **By Humphrey Loves Kate**

* * *

Kody's eyes shot open. _What time is it now? Last time I looked at the clock it was dark outside_ , Kody thought. With a deep breath in, Kody stretched out his body and turned to look behind his bunk bed down to the clock on the lower shelf of his bookcase. 10:22 a.m. The teen wolf had spent another Friday night staying up late in order to text his friends. _Darn, always regret doing that when I wake up the next morning_ , he thought. Face planting into his pillow, the adolescent wolf decided to lay in bed for a little while longer. It was spring break anyway and a Saturday in April 2014.

Kody's eyes shot open again. He had slept for almost two hours more! 12:15 p.m. The school play was tonight! It was show two of two of "The Man Who Came to Dinner," and Kody had a small supporting part in the play. He thought he should have gotten the lead of course. After all, he had five years of experience in theater before coming to his current school. But "high school plays are not based on talent, they are based on who has been there the longest." At least that was what he had told his friend Natasha over text message one day when he was especially fuming over the injustice he felt he had been dealt. "But there are no small parts, only small actors!" That's what Kody's eccentric acting coach, Annette, had told him the other day when he visited her in home coaching studio. It might be true. But the fact that the guy wolf that got the lead had no previous experience, besides having the lead in the play last year, completely annoyed Kody. He can't even learn his lines, Kody thought with a low growl remembering how the director continually called out the correct lines during dress rehearsals.

Kody slipped on his jeans, which he had to secure with a belt to keep them from slipping off, and a blue button down shirt. He brushed his dark brown and almost black fur into place and smiled at his reflection in his bathroom mirror. He sure had improved over the last year. He had lost an inch in his waist after leaving his old job at a fast food joint, had healthier fur, a healthier, leaner body, and better skin under the short fur on his face. He was also fifteen pounds lighter. His shoulders were very broad in contrast to his thinner than average waist. He thought he looked attractive. All I need now is that coveted six pack, the wolf thought as he lifted up his shirt smiling. His stomach was toned, and two abdominal muscles were clearly defined underneath the curvature of his rib cage, but the others were hidden under a thin layer of fat over his stomach. Most out of shape wolves would be jealous of his body, but he held himself to higher standards, almost to the standards of his school's teen body builder, Garth. But Garth did a lot of things to his body that Kody's philosophies just did not synchronize with. Garth did not take steroids, but some of the supplements he did take really wrecked havoc on his skin and hair. Better to be trim and have a nice face than bulging but with cystic, athlete's acne, Kody believed.

As Kody walked downstairs, the smell off coffee met his nostrils. The wolf wagged his tail. He sure did love a good cup of coffee, especially with sweetener in it or some dark chocolate on the side. His grandparents were in town to watch him in the play later that evening, and whenever his grandparents came for the weekend they brought loads of coffee! Of course it seemed like loads to Kody's household. Kody only drank coffee when he felt he needed it to wake up extra early or go through a long night of homework, and his mom drank decaf. "Want some more brown water with your bagel?" Kody's granddad would joke whenever he poured his daughter, Kody's mom, another cup. Guess we're spending the day with the family caffeine addicts, Kody thought to himself. He really did like his grandparents, though. Their caffeine addiction was just something to joke about.

"He's awake!" Kody's mom exclaimed.

"Hi Mom," Kody smiled as he sat down at the old kitchen table with his mom and her parents. "Morning Granddaddy and Grandmoma. How long have you guys been here?"

"We drove in this morning and got into town 'bout 10:30," Kody's granddad, Tom, said in his deep south, redneck accent.

"Would you like a cup of coffee?" Kody's grandmother, Mary, offered as she rose to cross the kitchen and grab the coffee pot.

Probably her third or fourth cup, Kody smiled to himself as she poured some into her own mug. "Sure, but just one please. I probably need some to get through tonight. We didn't get home until 11:00 last night, and it may be later tonight."

"Oh, that's right, you had the first performance of the play last night," Mary poured another mug full for Kody.

"Yes ma'am," Kody confirmed, taking the mug and dumping two spoonfuls of sugar into the hot drink. Kody lived in northern Middle Tennessee an hour from Nashville, his mom had grown up in Memphis, and his grandparents were from Kentucky and Tennessee but had resided in Memphis for the past thirty years. "Ma'am" was something you always said to an elder woman no matter what. Kody did not understand it even though he'd lived in the same small city of Lewisville, Tennessee his entire life. It was one of many things that were slowly creeping into the young wolf's life that were beginning to make him feel like he did not belong where he was. Maybe someday he would leave his town and never come back. But for now he was stuck where he was. Fortunately, he had friends and a social group in Nashville due to the fact that that was where his private school group held their weekly classes.

"Well what time do you have to leave to get all the makeup on and your fur done?" Tom asked teasingly.

Kody rolled his eyes as he sat down with his coffee and a banana. "3:00," he answered back, "And I have a lot to do until then. I have to make my bed, re iron the clothes from last night, shower, pack everything into my car, pack a snack, and make sure I have all of my lines ready to go."

"Well sounds like you'll be busy," Mary smiled.

"Yeah, I will be. Hey mom, can we go out for ice cream after tonight's show, please?" Kody turned to his mother with a pleading puppy look on his muzzle, which made him look like a little puppy again.. "I've eaten really healthy all week to look my best for the show and I'm always so hungry when we finally finish!"

"Well, I don't know. We'll see what time you finish the show," Kody's mom shrugged.

"We finished right at 10:00 last night! I know we'll be done by then tonight and can go to Dairy Queen! It's just the next exit on Interstate 40!" Kody licked his lips thinking of the double fudge cookie dough blizzard that was his guilty pleasure treat.

"Like I said, we'll see," Kody's mom repeated.

"Okay, well even if none of you guys come with me, I'm still going! You're letting me drive myself again, right?"

"Yes you can drive yourself there again. You've done it every single night this week for rehearsals."

"Just don't speed," Mary warned

"Okay Grandmomma," Kody looked away knowing he would forget and find himself traveling at 80 miles per hour, his interstate driving speed by his own default. "I gotta go get ready," Kody said as he finished his coffee and banana before running upstairs again.

* * *

 **Author's Note: So hello again world of FanFiction. HLK here. This is a story I've really wanted to do for a while, but I wasn't quite sure how well it would go over with some of my traditional A &O readers. But I digress. It's 2015 and nearly every possible permutation involving our favorite four legged wolf heroes has been done. So, why not do two legged characters in an anthro story using my life as the plot? **

**That's right. This story is anthro. I promise it will be unique though.  
**

 **That's right. This story will be 75% TRUE! The other 25% is, of course, a made up statistic (85% of statistics are made up on the spot, including this one!) to describe the remaining portion in which I place the wonderful heroes of Alpha and Omega into my life and make everyone an anthro wolf. Yay! **

**Oh by the way, pretty much everything in this chapter actually happened. Yes I really do have an eccentric acting coach. More on her in chapters to come.**

 **I am writing this for several reasons, and I'll share a few of them with you guys.**

 **1: My friend Crowwolf and I continually joke my life is crazy enough to have a book series on.**

 **2: I just graduated high school a month ago. I want a way to preserve those memories in detail.**

 **3: Your personal entertainment. :o :D**

 **Please leave a review! Craziness to come! Kody's got 3 rather dramatic sisters! O.o**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Kody threw his roller duffel bag in the backseat of his car. He had a white 2004 Jeep Liberty that used to be his dad's car before his dad received a new pickup truck from someone at work. When Kody first started driving the Jeep at age 16, it was still "his dad's car." Over the years however, Kody's father rewarded the young wolf with more trust and eventually started calling it "Kody's Jeep" instead of his own car. The Jeep had horrendous gas mileage, consuming a half tank simply to travel the hour long commute to the school and back with no other stops. Kody had nearly gone broke keeping gas in his car before he found a job at a sub shop. His parents were partly to blame for that adventure though. They made the poor wolf pay for his own gas money, but wouldn't allow him to get a job until he was almost 17! He lived off savings from a temporary job he had at a farm over the summer during his 15th year. He had made it work though. Kody had a knack for "making things work" even with ridiculously low resources. He loved the rushing feeling of pride he received whenever he proved others had underestimated him. He smirked as he whipped the SUV out of the long, winding driveway that led to his house and out onto the open road.

Kody looked down at the speedometer. 80 miles per hour. He did have a speeding habit, despite his grandmother's warnings, but fortunately he knew where all the speed traps were. And he had somewhere to be. He was on his way to his school in Nashville via the interstate. Male actors were not required to be backstage until almost 5 p.m, but coming an hour away from Lewisville, Kody was planning on rush hour traffic and he wanted to arrive early because he was not arriving already in costume like everyone else was. It was bad enough to have to wear a hot costume on and backstage for five hours. It was worse to wear it for seven or eight hours because you put it on before you started driving. A smile tugged at the corners of Kody's mouth as the Nashville skyline came into view behind the southern Tennessee hills bordering the interstate. He was almost there.

Kody was always amazed at the rush he got from weaving in and out of multiple lane Nashville traffic. It was even better for him because mostly everyone in Nashville cruised on the freeways at five or ten miles over the speed limit. Wolves in Lewisville just were not like that. They were slower and took their time. That's small towns for ya, Kody rolled his eyes thinking. Nothing to do and nowhere to be. He swerved onto the winding bridged ramp that would place him on I-40 Eastbound, his tires striking the concrete causing that familiar, high pitch humming sound that can only be heard when driving on bridges coated in concrete. The wolf grinned as he passed three slower cars on the bridge and looked down to see seven lanes of traffic moving rapidly in either direction. I-40: one of the longest interstate highways in the country. The runways of BNA Nashville International Airport were visible above him and to the right on top of a wolf-made hill. Kody hit a button and the two front windows rolled down automatically. Air whipped through the interior of the Jeep, displacing nearly all the fur from his chest up. Kody turned the wheel of the car and held the sharp turn that curved down the hill and onto 40; he drove through the curve as fast as he thought his tires could handle without skidding out behind him. Once he "landed," as he sometimes called it when he left a ramp, on 40, he hit the gas and the engine roared from 50 miles per hour back up to 65. He was passing the airport. Kody did not feel comfortable speeding around the airport, especially in seven lanes of traffic where a cop could pop up almost out of nowhere. From behind a grove of trees to his right, Kody watched a large jet plane suddenly roar into view, and take off from the runway that nearly collided with the interstate. Kody grinned as it flew directly over him. He loved jet planes for some strange reason as much as he enjoyed driving through city traffic.

* * *

As Kody walked into the small, private school, which really was a church building that housed some classes a few times a week, he was greeted by some of his fellow actresses. They were all female because Kody was early and none of the males would arrive for another twenty or thirty minutes. His best friend, Kierra, ran up to him and hugged him. Kody smiled as he breathed in her grape smelling perfume. "Hey! I'm really glad you came early again! Did you bring the hairspray and the gel for the guys?"

Kody rolled his eyes. "Yes, I did," he said as he unzipped his bag and tossed Kierra the hairspray. "I just want you to know it's kind of sad that the only wolf that remembered hairspray was a guy. Second night in a row too. You're letting your entire gender down!" Kody smiled poking fun at female stereotypes.

Kierra rolled her eyes back. "Ugh! You're such a diva."

"I know."

Another female wolf ran by. It was Jamie, the female lead and main hair stylist for the male wolves. All males but Kody. Nobody touched his hair but him. "Did you bring the gel?" Jamie asked frantically.

"Yep," Kody said tossing the sticky gel bottle to her. "Use it sparingly. There's not much left!"

She ran off to the kitchen.

"Can I go back there and start getting ready? I mean, I don't want to walk in on a bunch of girls dressing," Kody said to Kierra.

"Oh yeah you're fine! They've all been dressed for about twenty minutes," Kierra replied.

Kody wheeled his bag back to the hallway behind stage, Kierra following close behind him. As he opened the door to the hall, a girl ran up to Kody. "NO! Kody! Go away! We're dressing!" It was Marilyn. She sounded sarcastic but serious at the same time. A she wolf was pulling on a dress over her underwear in the background.

"Oh gosh I'm sorry!" Kody yelled as Marilyn pulled the door shut again before Kody had a chance to close it himself. He turned to Kierra. "I thought you said everyone was dressed!"

Kierra shrugged. "Uh I don't know." Then she squeezed past Kody and let herself into the back hallway. Thirty seconds later, she opened the door wide. "Okay, it's safe now."

Kody shook his head as he ran inside and to a large storage room where he could change safely and hopefully uninterrupted. Kierra was so funny. She always had everything together and was completely organized. Except tonight. Tonight she was running around like dead wolf meat that still had its nervous system twitching and intact. But she was the assistant director. Basically her job was… everything. Except being on stage and acting. Kody kind of had a crush on her too. She was super smart, funny, organized, fashionable, and an outside-the-box thinker. She did not care how society told her to live her life or what the social norms were. She did whatever she knew was best for her and her family. And, within reason, she did what she wanted. Kody knew her mom had taught her to live that way. Kierra's family struggled financially for several years before she met Kody. They had been just above poverty level, lived in a house far out in the country where the taxes and house payments were low, and hardly ever took a vacation. But a few years ago, Kierra's mom was so fed up with both parents working and the family of seven still living paycheck to paycheck that she did something crazy. She quit her job. Then she used what little savings they did have to start a business. She created her own magazine and an entire series of curriculum and self help books that focused on an ideal way of family living. The business grew into a company, fueled by the internet and modern day marketing techniques. Kierra's family then moved from their small house to a much larger house in the suburbs of Nashville. They traveled all the time, vacationing and promoting the company simultaneously. Judging from their current lifestyle, Kody guessed Kierra's mom's net worth was somewhere in the mid or low seven figures. But Kierra never talked about her family's finances to anyone. She was a mysteriously wonderful girl.

Kody walked down the hallway towards the makeshift makeup station, where Annette was working on makeup for the actors. Annette was a member of the church, a real professional actress, and now Kody's acting coach. She preferred to be referred to as an "experienced" she-wolf. She had auburn fur and hazel eyes and she was sixty something years old. She was a judge when the school first had auditions for the school play. That's how she met Kody. She gave every wolf that auditioned a certificate for a free acting class out at her studio. It was a one on one class, tailored specifically to each wolf's individual strengths and weaknesses. Surprisingly, no one wanted to take her class. No one except Kody. Kody drove to her studio one day after school and worked for almost three hours learning about camera acting and even a little more than he expected on acting as a business. He left the class with a new light and a new love of acting. Annette told Kody he should have headshots taken, which he did, and look for a talent agent in the Nashville area that might be able to find him some professional, and even well paying gigs. She even told him how to go about doing it and what to say should he ever be contacted from a real entertainment group. Kody considered doing it, but he did not really expect to get anywhere. At least not for a while. He was too busy with school and play rehearsals.

Now Humphrey sat in the makeup chair, unwillingly letting Annette work her showbiz magic on him. "Ugh!" he groaned. "Do I really, really have to have mascara? I only have like five lines!"

"Oh come on!" Annette said stepping back rapidly brush in paw, her long necklaces and earrings jingling. "You may feel ridiculous, but to the audience you'll look great! And that's what matters tonight!" She laughed and then started coughing heavily. Recovering, she picked up an eyeliner pen, which she was using for lip color. As she leaned in to Humphrey's muzzle, she spoke, narrating everything that she did. "Okay, now when you're doing your lips… Wait!"

Humphrey sat in the chair with his lip bitten under his fangs.

"No no! Stretch your lips out like this!" Annette said demonstrating the proper way to pose for a makeup artist.

Humphrey complied.

"Now, when you're doing your lips," Annette continued, "you wanna start with the top one by making an 'X' from corner to corner…" Annette paused as she drew an "X" on the helpless wolf's lip with a darker shade. "Then you just gently fill it in. This keeps you from missing spots in the corners and in the very middle." Annette finished off Humphrey's lips.

Kody snickered to himself. "Humphrey, look over here!"

Humphrey turned to Kody, who snapped a picture on his Samsung phone.

"DUDE!" Humphrey yelled out.

Kody laughed evilly, checking the picture on his phone.

"Give me that!" Humphrey reached past Annette and took the phone from Kody. He looked it over before saying, "We'll just delete that!"

But Kody quickly tapped a button on the corner of the phone, locking the screen before Humphrey deleted the picture. Of course Kody had the phone locked with a passcode. The picture was safe… for now.

Humphrey growled, his face blushing even more than the blush he already wore. "I swear if you post that anywhere…"

"No no I won't post it…" Kody began. "…I'll just make sure Kierra gets it for when she starts on the yearbook next week!"

Humphrey covered his face with his hand-paws and lowered his head to his lap, feeling the humiliation already. "Ugggh!"

"Humphrey! You'll ruin your makeup!" Annette exclaimed.

Humphrey jolted upright. He did not want to go through that again! Without wasting a second, he ran off down the hall towards the kitchen to get his fur slicked back with Jamie and Kody's gel.

"Oh darn it… I'll have to make sure he looks okay. When does he go out?" Annette asked.

"Not until the final act. You've got time to catch him," Kody said.

"Okay. Who's next?!" Annette smiled looking for someone to pretty-fy.

As a girl sat down, Kody's slightly overweight friend Natasha came up to him. "Are you hearing Miss Annette?"

"Yeah, what about her?" Kody asked turning to look at Natasha.

"She keeps repeating everything she says… like it's the same thing over and over. It's kinda creepy."

Kody looked to Annette.

"Now when you're doing your lips," she took out another pencil for the female wolf, "you wanna start with the top one by making an 'X' from corner to corner." Annette continued on, saying the same thing as before.

"Well, she's been teaching for years now," Kody whispered to Natasha. "I mean, at a school that's what teachers do: they say pretty much the same thing to every class that comes through. I imagine it gets repetitive and they find a routine."

"I don't know… her perfume bothers me. Does she smoke? She's got a bad smoker's cough," Natasha asked.

Kody shook his head. "Nah but her husband does smoke inside the house. I'm sure she's had years of secondhand smoke and she uses lots of perfume to cover it up. It doesn't bother me very much. She's really nice… and yeah she is a little eccentric I guess."

"Who's next?" Annette smiled looking up.

Kierra ran back to the group just then. "Okay guys! Mister Ron is opening the house up to the audience! Thirty minutes till curtain!"

"Yay!" Annette cheered. One would think she was the star of the show from her excitement.

"We don't have a curtain!" Humphrey shouted out sarcastically. And it was true. The stage was fairly small and there was no curtain. Scene changes were done in the pitch black dark.

Kierra gave him a funny look. "Well okay then smart a-" she stopped herself in front of Annette. "Uh, smarty pants!" Then Kierra ran off to go do assistant director things.

"So who's next?" Annette asked.

"I think I'm the only one who hasn't had makeup," Kody said.

"Okay we'll do you and then get the show on the road! Come sit down!" Annette made a large gesture towards the chair. As she was making up Kody, she said, "Kody is actually now one of my acting students at the studio. We're looking into getting him an agent!"

Kody could not help but laugh. Annette liked to brag on everything: herself, wolves around her, her experiences… But she was never condescending. She was always upbeat and encouraging to everyone and wanted everybody to have a great time around her, no matter what they were or where they came from.

As she brushed powder onto Kody's face, Annette smiled. "Okay! I think we're ready. If you guys need me, I'll be out in the house on the front row! Ah! So exciting! Break a leg everyone!"

* * *

 **Author's Note: Well I hope you guys enjoyed that. It was a lot of fun to write. I didn't expect to put this much detail into this chapter! But hey! I had coffee and a creative station set up and it just started coming and coming! WOO!**

 **Once again: 75% of this is true. Yep. I really do have an hour long commute to school. Obviously the Humphrey part was added in. I don't even know of someone named Humphrey at my school. :P**

 **Please leave a kind and generous review in exchange for reading a kind and generous update. :3  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: For the record, Kody is currently 17. He will turn 18 soon though. That quote in my summary is from him later on this year. It's gonna be a big year for him.**

* * *

 **Chapter Three**

After the show, Kody and all the other performers bowed before the crowd of wolves that had gathered to witness the play. When the curtain finale music stopped, the stage was swarmed by adoring and cheering parents, grandparents, and uncle's cousin's wives that just "happened to be in the area" at the time of the show. Kody, Humphrey, and the rest of the cast found themselves showered with way too much praise from giddy mothers that were "so proud" of their pups. "Where's my paparazzi crowd control?!" Kody shouted out jokingly.

"So Garth, what'd you think of the show?" Humphrey said approaching the big shot alpha.

"Ha! I wouldn't be caught dead with this on my face!" Garth teasingly smeared a finger on Humphrey's blush. He looked at the tip of his finger, which was now bright pink, and shook his head.

Humphrey rolled his eyes. "They made me wear it! That… that she-wolf! Annette! She's crazy! She put three pounds of makeup on the girls and two pounds on the guys!"

"Yeah, it was all her. Bet she put that lipstick on you too!" Garth playfully pushed Humphrey with his muscular arm.

Humphrey pushed him back.

"Okay, knock it off you two!" Kody said as he came between the alpha wolf and omega wolf. "Humphrey, my grandmother has makeup removal wipes if you want one." He held up a pre-moistened white wipe that smelled flowery.

Garth grabbed it. He sniffed it. "Smells as girly as him!" he said pointing to Humphrey.

Humphrey snatched the wipe and ran back to the bathroom to get the gunk off his face.

Garth shrugged. "I was just messing with him."

Kody rolled his eyes and turned around to see another wolf waiting, probably to congratulate him. The wolf had snuck up on him while he was speaking to Humphrey and Garth. The new wolf had grey fur and a strange scar over his left eye. "Um, can I help you?" Kody asked.

"Oh, sorry, where are my manners," the wolf spoke. "The name's Robert. Uh, really kinda liked your character. I mean, I remember when I wanted to run away from home like the guy you were playing did towards the end of the play."

Kody smiled. "Thanks."

"Yeah. You're welcome," Robert said. "Sorry, I'm a little…"

"Shy?" Kody tried to finish his sentence for him.

"Yeah, that," Robert chuckled.

Kody nodded. "So you're… a senior here?"

"Yes, I am," Robert said awkwardly shoving his hand-paws into his pockets.

"Oh. I'm a junior," Kody smiled.

"I know," Robert cut him off. "I mean, I remember seeing you in that surprise 17th birthday party you had at the beginning of the year."

Kody's eyes widened. His first impression of Robert was that the wolf was shy, but now he was starting to think the wolf was a little creepy. It was April and his surprise party was in August of the previous year. The fact that Robert knew him from there but had never bothered to say a word was a little weird, but maybe the wolf was just too shy until tonight. "Oh yeah," Kody contained himself. "Yeah Kierra makes a good cake and throws a nice party. Hey speaking of sugar, I'm headed to Dairy Queen… well, I will be heading to Dairy Queen if my mom lets me. Do you want to come? I'm going to see if anybody else cares to join."

"Sure. When do you want to meet there?" Robert asked.

Kody rolled his eyes. "Well knowing my family, don't plan to be there for another thirty minutes. It's the one at exit 221 off of I-40. It's 10:10 now, so try and be there by 10:40."

"Cool. See you then," Robert said as he walked away from the stage and back into the crowded auditorium.

Kody started heading backstage to take off his makeup, when his mom caught his arm.

"Kody, wait! We want to get a picture with you in your makeup and costume," she said as Kody's three sisters, father, and grandparents stood by.

"Ugh, mom! Can't I just take my makeup off? It's been itching for an hour already!" Kody whimpered.

"Oh suck it up for two more minutes!" Kody's mom said, handing her phone over to Kierra so the whole family could be in the photo.

Kody complied with the photography session. But then of course his grandparents wanted one with him, and his mom and dad wanted one with just him, and then each of his three sisters, Madison, Megan, and Katie, all wanted one with just him, and as if she could sense his suffering, Kody's mom wanted one with just him before finally he was done. Then Kierra grabbed his arm.

"Nope, not yet mister! One more!" she said.

"Oh not you too! What have they done to you, Kierra?" Kody said as he smiled while his father snapped a picture.

"Now with my phone," Kierra said pulling her iPhone from her pocket to hand to Kody's father.

But Kody did not complain for Kierra.

As Kierra checked the picture on her phone, Kody asked, "Kierra, wanna come to Dairy Queen with me and a few other wolves for ice cream?"

Kierra smiled. "I'd love to Kody, but I'm assistant director so I have to stay here and help load all the props and everything back into the trailer so they can have church service tomorrow. But I promise you we'll go to coffee on Wednesday after school, okay?"

Kody sighed. "Okay, coffee works too."

Kierra hugged him and then ran off to go help the prop crew load the trucks.

Before anyone could stop him, Kody darted back to the large closet from earlier to change clothes and take off the ridiculous amounts of makeup he wore! Then he ran to the kitchen and makeup room to grab his hair gel and hairspray before packing up his bag and wheeling it back into the auditorium. Only a fourth of the crowd from earlier remained, and half of that was just the stage crew cleaning everything up. Robert sat in a chair on the front row; he looked like he was playing a game on his phone. Kody had his phone in one paw and his car keys in the other. He strutted up to his family. "You guys ready to go get ice cream?"

"Ice cream?" Kody's mom asked. She looked at her watch. "It's late."

"Only 10:25! Come on mom! I've worked so hard this week with rehearsals every single night. I haven't gone to bed before midnight all week. You knew I wanted ice cream from this morning."

"I don't know. What time do they close?"

"Midnight. I already looked it up."

Kody's mom looked to her husband.

"Oh come on! If I can wait ten minutes through all your picture taking you can at least let me go get ice cream. You don't even have to come, just let me go!" Kody pleaded.

Kody's family finally started meandering to the exit. Kody looked back and motioned for Robert to come on. "So are we going?" Kody asked his family.

His parents kept walking, refusing to answer him. His grandparents stood to the side awkwardly.

Kody waited and waited and waited for an answer. He asked again. Finally he said, "Okay even if you're not going at least give me an answer! Is it that hard?"

"Yes go ahead," Kody's mom said.

"Thank you!" Kody ran off to his car, threw his bag in, and sped off into the night. Whenever his family was trying to decide on something, there was a mind numbing energy that radiated from them. They just could never make a decision! Kody joked about it and even nicknamed it "Decision Disorder - the inability to make a simple decision without excessive time and thought." He was convinced both his mom and his dad had a severe case of it. But getting anything done with them was a ridiculously difficult experience. Kody worried he'd lose IQ points and his mind processing power would slow down if he spent too much time with his parents when they were in that state. That's why he often stormed off quickly, just as he had tonight, whenever he had had enough or got the information he needed.

* * *

Ten minutes later, he and Robert were sitting at a table at Dairy Queen. Kody spooned the cold ice cream of a Double Fudge Cookie Dough Blizzard into his maw. "You know what I don't get?" Kody ranted. "I saw you get in your car after my parents got in their cars. We managed to get here before them, order our food, and start eating and they still haven't shown up yet. Are they that slow?"

"I don't know man! I practically just met you. Is your family always like this?" Robert asked as he licked the ice cream from his cone.

"Yes! It's horrible!" Kody put his paws to his forehead.

"Brain freeze?"

"No! Just a headache from stress. And barely sleeping this past week." Kody sighed.

"Insomnia?"

"No, nothing like that. Just being too busy to sleep is all," Kody answered.

"Wow."

Just then, Kody's mom, two of his sisters, and both of his grandparents walked in. "I better go say hi to them," Kody said as he stood up from the table he and Robert shared and ran across the restaurant to the ordering counter.

"Oh! Here you are!" Kody's mom exclaimed in a cheerful surprise, completely unaware of the anger and unnecessary stress she had caused for her son.

Kody rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you never told me if you were actually coming or not. You just told me to go ahead."

"What do you all want?" Mary, Kody's grandmother, interrupted.

"I've already ordered," Kody said.

"Oh. Well, I was going to buy your ice cream," Mary offered.

Kody laughed. "I don't think you know what you'd be getting into anyway, Grandmomma. I like the five dollar Blizzard treats, and then I like to add on extra flavors into one. It gets pretty expensive." He paused. "But, if you want you can buy me a Dr. Pepper…" Kody pleaded with puppy eyes.

"Alright, I'll get you a Dr. Pepper," she smiled.

"Thanks," Kody said. "Oh, by the way, I brought a friend from school with me. He's sitting over there at the table, whenever you guys want to meet him." Kody took the medium sized cup that the cashier offered him, filled it with Dr. Pepper, and then went back over to sit with Robert. "It'll take them a while to order, just you watch. They're so dysfunctional."

"All I can say is wow," Robert replied.

Kody and Robert watched as Kody's family argued, took forever to decide on what they wanted, and then finally made their way over to the table Kody had saved for them. Yes. They were _that_ family.

As Kody's mom set the tray down on Kody's chosen table, she said, "Why don't we sit over there instead?" She pointed to a table on the other side of the restaurant, identical to the table Kody had chosen.

With a spoon of ice cream in his mouth, Kody cut his eyes and looked at Robert with a glare of _Really? You've got to be kidding me._ "Fine!" Kody pushed his chair back and strutted over to the other side of the restaurant, ice cream in one paw and Dr. Pepper in the other. Robert followed.

At the new table, which was somehow better than the other one according to Kody's mom, Kody's family managed to eat and introduce themselves to Robert before being told by a restaurant employee that the dining room was closing at 11, but the drive through would remain open until midnight. Minutes later, the wolves all left the restaurant. Kody and Robert exchanged phone numbers before leaving though.

Kody's granddad was in the car with him on the way home, and Kody found himself listening to classic granddad stories about all the crazy things he did on the farm as a young puppy. Kody just nodded and listened, and he was grateful for all the chattering. There was nothing to look at but the black of night and an occasional sleepy streetlight out in the middle of nowhere on the road from Nashville to Lewisville once off the metro interstate highways. If Kody had been alone in the car, he might have fallen asleep.

It had been a long day. Kody's body seemed to thank him a thousand times when he finally made it to bed after getting home. Kody slept without waking up that night.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hm, seems our friend Kody has some dysfunctional family problems. Oh boy! Tune in next chapter to meet Kate and Lilly in this story! :3 Please leave me a review!  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

 **4:15 a.m.** **Wednesday.** Kody stumbled out of bed and slid the virtual button across the screen of his iPod touch to silence the screeching alarm. Why were alarm clocks always so much louder when you were dead asleep? The teen wolf tiredly groped around in the dark for the light switch. He flipped it on, flooding the long bedroom with light. Squinting and still groping about as his eyes adjusted to the light, the wolf grabbed his phone, a red Samsung Galaxy S3, and turned it on. There were no new text messages. But what crazed wolf would be texting between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., the time Kody had been asleep last night? Or rather, this morning. On one too many occasions, Kody did not really sleep, he just napped. Usually, it was because he had a lot of homework and had not had time to do it during regular waking hours because of a busy week. And the week before had indeed been very busy.

Kody typed a text message to Robert: _Hey man, we should hang out after school today. Since drama is over, my last class ends at 1:00 p.m. Wanna get coffee? I think me and Kierra are going to get some wolves together for coffee, since all the drama kids will have an hour with nothing to do now that the play is over._

Kody then showered and trimmed the fur on his face. As he stood in front of his small bathroom mirror trying to think of what needed to be done before he slipped into his clothes, his phone vibrated. Robert had replied: _First off, what the hell are you doing up? It's 4:00 a.m! Second, yeah but I should warn you I'm not too big of a coffee drinker._

Kody looked at the clock on his phone. Robert had exaggerated on the time to draw out the absurdity, but it was not yet 5:00 a.m., so technically he could be considered correct. With a smile on his face, Kody mockingly typed back: _First off, I always get up this early on class days… it takes me a while to get ready, plus I have to leave at 5:45 to avoid Nashville traffic. Second, dude I'm in love with coffee! So is Kierra! You might be in with the wrong crowd. ;)_

Moments later, Robert replied: _Oh right, you live in Lewisville. Quite the drive for school. Anyway, yeah I'll go to coffee, but right now I'm going back to sleep. See ya at school. Don't text me, I'll text you. :P_

Kody rolled his eyes, then made his bed and pulled on jeans. He then slid on a green plaid button down. This shirt in particular he was not crazy about until Kierra mentioned she thought it looked cool on him. Now Kody wore the shirt as often as he could around her, without looking suspiciously repetitive. Feeling more attractive than usual, Kody left a few extra buttons undone at the top of the shirt, showing off some of his chest fur. Subtle, but attractive if done right, he thought.

Downstairs, Kody set his backpack on the table, made coffee to go, and grabbed a quick bite of fruit and some oatmeal that his mom already had made for him. Usually, Kody hated his mom making food for him because he liked to be independent. But on school mornings, he needed all the extra time he could get. He thanked his mom, who then went back to bed, then he grabbed his lunch and backpack and coffee and dashed out to his car. He threw his phone in the passenger seat, hooked his iPod up to the stereo, put his coffee in the cup holder, threw his backpack and lunch in the backseat and drove off to Nashville. **5:50 a.m.**

* * *

Later that morning during his 8:00 literature class, Kody sat next to Kierra and Robert. He leaned over to Kierra, "Robert wants to come to coffee later during the drama class hour. Do you want to come?"

"Sure," Kierra whispered. "I'm going to ask some more wolves during lunch. Maybe we could fill both our cars up."

Just then, the literature teacher, Ms. Sydney, squirted Kierra and Kody with her water spray bottle, which she used jokingly when students were not paying attention or were talking in class. Kierra squealed and squirmed and Kody jerked upright. "Mr. Wolfner and Ms. Kelly. Would you two care to join in on our discussion of Frankenstein or is whatever you're discussing more interesting? Perhaps you'd like to share it with your classmates."

Kody and Kierra shook their heads, both smiling sheepishly with droplets of water on their faces. "We're good," Kody smiled.

Two other students across the room snickered and Ms. Sydney promptly squirted them both with her water gun. But this of course made other students start giggling and snickering and before long everyone in the class had their chairs moved at least six inches and droplets of water in their fur. When Ms. Sydney tried to squirt a male wolf that had hidden under a table, she realized she had run out of water. "Oh darn it. Well okay then," she said as she sat back down at her desk. "Moving from… hehe…. well, moving from one monster to another… let's get back to our story." Wolves giggled at her corny joke as everyone re-adjusted their chairs and opened their books of the Frankenstein monster back to the appropriate pages.

"She's crazy," Kody mouthed to Robert.

Robert nodded.

* * *

During his "study hall," which was really just an hour and a half during a science class that he did not need, Kody sat in the lunch room typing away at his computer. He was emailing Annette, who, eccentric as she was, had become somewhat of a mentor to him over the past two months. " _It's been three weeks since I first emailed Music City Talent," Kody typed out. "Would you recommend calling their office to show I'm genuinely interested in signing with them? Or should I just start looking at some other places? -Kody Wolfner"_

Natasha jumped up behind Kody just then. "Boo!"

Kody jolted nearly spilling the bottle of water he had next to his computer. "Holy crap! What the heck are you doing?"

"I asked Ms. Sydney if I could go 'to the bathroom.'" Natasha replied. "Actually I was just really, really bored."  
"You're a mess," Kody shook his head and sipped his water.

"I know," Natasha laughed. "What are you doing?"

"Work stuff, I guess. I'm trying to get a meeting with some talent agency, any talent agency at this point, in the Nashville area. Nobody's emailed me back though, probably because I don't have any professional experience."

"Ah," Natasha said, which is what she usually said when she wanted to sound like she cared when she actually did not.

Kody changed the subject. "Are you going to just skip class?"

"Nah, I'll probably go ahead and go back so she doesn't squirt me with her spray bottle later." Natasha said as she scurried off.

Kody shrugged and then turned back to his computer. Annette had emailed him back. _"Absolutely. Give Music City a call, but go ahead and call/email a few other places. Let them FIGHT over you. ;) Been hearing lots of good things about Williams Talent Group lately. Might want to check them out. I hear they're FAITH BASED. Also, Cheryl is an old friend of mine and as far as I know, she still works there as one of the agents. Of course there's always my agent, Talent Trails. ;) Regge would love you. -Annette Smith"_

Kody shook his head. He thought it was funny how Annette randomly capitalized things she wanted to emphasize. He had no idea who Cheryl was though. Or who Regge was, for that matter. Might as well try a few places, Kody thought as he closed his laptop and grabbed his cell phone. He walked out to his Jeep and sat in it. It was way too noisy to make a "professional phone call" in the school and there were a lot of immature wolves who had no respect for when someone was on the phone. After calling Music City Talent and Williams Talent Group, Kody found that Music City Talent would email him if they were interested and his call to Williams Talent had gone straight to voicemail. Gosh, this is like job hunting! You have to make twenty phone calls just to get an entry level position! Kody rolled his eyes and checked the clock in his car. It was almost time for the science class to end and that meant it was almost time to go to coffee! Kody's tail wagged as he hopped out of his Jeep, leaving his laptop safely inside his backpack in the locked car.

Back in the school, Kody found Kierra. "Hey, you still want to go to coffee?"

"NO! Gosh, Kody, no I don't want to go to coffee!" Kierra yelled, but she had a suspicious smile on her face.

Kody stared at her, waiting.

"I'm kidding. Of course I do. And my older sister, Kate, wants to come too. So does Garth, and you already have Robert coming. That makes five. Let me put my books away and then we can all just go in my mom's car if that's okay."  
"That's fine. Five wolves in my Jeep is kinda cramped anyway."

* * *

Later, Kierra sat behind the wheel of her mom's Buick Enclave. Kierra had told Kody that her family called the Buick "The nice 'un" jokingly, since it was the nicest car they owned. Kody was in the passenger seat, Robert in the middle, Kate beside Robert and Garth was in the back.

As Kierra turned up the Christina Perri CD Kody had given her for her birthday, Garth spoke up from the cramped third row, you know, that tiny seat in the back of SUVs that's advertised to fit two or three full sized adults but actually barely passes as a seat at all for any sized wolf. That seat. "Okay, how did I end up in the very back? I'm six-foot-three and the rest of you are five-foot-nine or shorter!"

"Hey! You were the last one out here!" Kierra laughed over the music.

"I was fixing my mane!" Garth argued.

"Hey I understand that," Kody said giving Garth a thumbs up. He and Garth were always both very well groomed.

Robert sighed. "Keep your shirt on, I'll sit in the back when we head back to school. I'm only five-foot-six."

"No, don't keep your shirt on, take your shirt off!" Kate yelled out teasingly, giggling.

Garth shrugged and lifted his T-shirt up enough to show his almost eight pack abs and part of his pecs. Kate swooned and Kierra giggled eyeing the sight from the rear view mirror. Robert and Kody both rolled their eyes. "Girls," Kody said.

At the coffee shop, the wolves ordered their beverages and sat in lounge chairs sipping them. Kierra had a green tea frappe, Kody had an iced mocha espresso, Kate had a skinny mocha latte, Garth had a chocolate banana smoothie with two scoops of protein powder, and Robert had hot chocolate.

"We should make this a regular occasion. Like at least once a month," Kate suggested.

"Yeah, but there's only a month left of school," Robert added.

"What's everybody doing for the summer?" Garth asked. "I'm going to get a job so I can pay for a personal trainer."

Kate laughed. "You would do that, wouldn't you?"

"Well my parents said if I have a job and pay for it myself, they'll pay for half of it," Garth smiled.

"That's nice!" Kierra said, sipping her frappe.

"I'm going to work with my dad off and on at his company. And of course take care of the house and yard while he works." Robert said.

"What's your dad do?" Garth asked.

"He designs and sells weapons to the military, CIA, FBI, and the TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation)," Robert proudly stated.

"Dude, that's awesome! You gotta let me see the facility sometime!" Garth wagged his tail getting excited.

"I'll ask him, but some of it is top secret. He won't let me in on some of the latest stuff," Robert said.

"Kate and I are going to be traveling basically every other week," Kierra sighed. "As usual. We have to attend a bunch of conferences all across the nation to help our mom promote her company and sell her stuff. It can be fun, but it gets exhausting."

"Don't you guys ever just fly to the stuff?" Kody asked.

"We could but we wouldn't have the trailer to pull all the literature and it gets expensive to fly seven wolves all over the country all summer long. Plus we would have to check extra bags full of books! It just cuts into the profits too much," Kierra replied.

"Ugh, I can only do so much driving before I get sick of it. We haven't had a family road trip in four years!" Kody said sipping his coffee.

"Our last one was like… two weeks ago," Kierra giggled.

"What are you doing this summer, Kody?" Garth asked.

"Uh, gee I don't know. I'm trying to get an agent still. I kinda hope that happens and then I can start auditioning for some tv roles. That would be cool," Kody replied wishfully thinking. "Cool if it happens but there's no guarantee, unlike pretty much everybody else's plans."

"You'll get one," Kierra said. "I mean, I hardly know anything about it but I have a feeling you'll find one soon. You've got some talent."

"Thanks," Kody smiled.

* * *

As the wolves got out of the Buick back at school, Kody's cell phone rang. "Hey, this is Cheryl from Williams Talent Group. I'm looking for someone named Kody Wolfner…"

Kody's tail started wagging as he listened to the voice on the other end of his phone.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Sorry for the delay guys. My friends invited me to go to the beach with them kind of last minute "Like hey you wanna go? Cool we leave in three days." So yeah. There was a lot to do and turns out I have the best car for a road trip to the beach, a Jeep, so I had to make sure that was mechanically sound and pack while working two jobs. But hey, I made it work cause that's what I do. :D Also yay for having savings and being able to afford that! Now to just keep my tan...**

 **Oh! My second agent from out of state finally got me an audition. So I have the first audition for them that I'll be taping this week. So yeah. That happened too. In state agent: 20 auditions. Out of state agent: 1. Yeah...**

 **Speaking of agents, looks like Kody's got a nibble on his bait! :o Stay tuned.**

 **Also, since Kate is now Kierra's sister, that technically means Lilly is their younger sister and Eve and Winston are their parents. I think that's how I'm going to leave it but I wasn't 100% sure so I just kept Lilly out of this chapter.**

 **Since Abby's mom has a Buick, I can't resist. Has anyone else seen that commercial where the black lady goes "That's not a Buick!" and then the old granny type lady goes "Thaat's what I toooold hiimm!" It's what me and my friends say whenever we see a Buick now. Ha.**

 **Yay for putting Garth in the back seat though. Humor. :3**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Just so everyone's clear on some things I may have been forgetting to make crystal clear...**

 **Kody is 17.**

 **Italicized writing inside quotes means a text or a speaker on the other line of the phone.**

 **Italicized writing without quotes means emphasis on a word or phrase or it is a character's thoughts.**

 **I have not picked out names for Kody's parents. I may refer to them as Kody's mom and Kody's dad. Those of you who watch "The Fairly Oddparents" will get that. Those of you that don't and want to know, PM me. I'm not using real names in this story aside from real cities like Nashville.**

 **And a heads up. None of my italics or bolds from my word processor are carrying over, so I have to go through after uploading to FF and redo them all. If something seems like it should have been bolded or italicized, please point it out in a PM. Thanks.**

* * *

 **Chapter Five**

" _I'm looking for someone named Kody Wolfner,_ " Cheryl from Williams Talent said.

"That's me!" Kody nearly yelped out in excitement, ears perked and tail wagging. He dashed over from Kierra's Buick to his Jeep and hopped into the driver's seat so he could hear the voice on the other line without outside noise or other wolves bothering him.

" _Hey Kody. Like I said, my name is Cheryl and I was just returning your call from earlier. I'm sorry I couldn't answer, I was on the phone with one of our clients._ "

"That's okay, I understand," Kody said listening intently.

" _Anyway, I understand you're interested in representation._ "

"Right."

" _So listen, I saw your resume in my email, and I know you don't have a lot of professional experience, but since you seem really genuinely interested I'll tell you that we're having open calls tonight and tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. We'd love to have you stop by and show us what you can do._ "

"Whoa! That's great!" Kody exclaimed screaming for joy mentally. _YEEEAAAAH!_

" _Wonderful, so can we expect you tonight?_ "

Kody thought about it for a second. It would be a really long day to go all the way back to Lewisville and get cleaned up then go all the way back into Nashville, and he could look really tired, something he knew would count against him in searching for an agent. "Actually, if it's okay, tomorrow would work a lot better."

" _Sure, that's fine. Just bring a couple copies of your resume and headshot for us to keep and if you're under eighteen, you will need to bring a parent._ "

"I'm seventeen. My dad and I will come."

" _Alright then, that's great. We will see you tomorrow night!_ "

"Thanks so much!"

The agent hung up without saying bye.

"YES!" Kody screamed. He leaped out of his car and dashed off to tell Kierra the good news.

* * *

Later that evening, at the dinner table, Kody shared with his family his good news.

"So let me get this straight," Kody's father, a short, middle aged business wolf with silver fur, said, "you have an interview with an agent tomorrow night and you want me to take you?"

"Well, yeah," Kody said. "It's not like mom can take me."

Kody's father rolled his eyes as he took a sip of his soda. One of the major family issues in the Wolfner household was parental attachment. Kody's fifteen year old sister, Megan, had severe psychological issues which prevented her from being separated from Kody's mom for any reason whatsoever. In Megan's early childhood years, she could be dropped off or left with any trusted adult wolf for any period of time. When she hit her preteen years, however, she developed multiple mental illnesses. One of these was severe attachment to the point it basically immobilized Kody's mom aside from small errands like groceries and paying bills. Megan also had claustrophobia, and the fear of being abandoned and unable to do anything about it, the latter of which tied directly into the whole separation anxiety thing. Megan would have a panic attack if Kody's mom left the house to go anywhere, no matter how short of a time she was gone, even if it was just a neighborhood walk. So whenever Kody needed an adult to accompany him for something important, his dad had to make sure his schedule at his self employed law office allowed for the errand. Megan was receiving therapy weekly at a hospital in Nashville, because no one in the Wolfner household could function properly because of her, but nothing helped. All the "therapist" did was give her pills and anger her to the point that she now yelled at and cursed several members of the family. And Kody's father was dead tired of it. Kody was amazed at how strong his parents' marriage was through everything.

"Come on, Dad. Agents are very busy people. We'll be in and out within an hour, maybe even less. All you have to do is supervise me there. And I'll be eighteen in a little over three months, so if they sign me you won't have to worry about supervising me for very long at all," Kody reasoned.

"I don't know, Bud…" Kody's father shook his head as he finished his soda and began to munch on the ice. **(A/N: Because wolves are related to dogs and dogs love ice. And my dad really does that.)**

Kody sighed. "I mean, what do you have to lose? I have some savings from when I worked at the sub shop last year. I'll give you $30 for the gas for your truck. I'll even _drive_ us there!"

Kody's dad shook his head. "Nah, you don't have to do that. I'll take you. What time did you say it was?"

"7:00 p.m."

"Okay, I'll be off work then and we can go to Whole Foods or something afterwards," Kody's dad agreed. He had multiple food allergies and had to shop at Whole Foods in order to ensure he was buying high quality food that was not contaminated with anything he was allergic to. There were no Whole Foods stores in Lewisville, so whenever the family was in Nashville, they did their grocery shopping. "But what exactly can they do for you that you can't do yourself?"

"Annette says agents have access to all the legitimate auditions and can get you in and out with a casting director in minutes, rather than waiting in line for hours at rare open calls. Then, when you get a part, they make sure that you're getting paid competitive wages that are fair for the type of project you work on, and they only make money when you make money."

Kody's dad shrugged. "How come you can't do that all by yourself?"

"Well, I could but I'd be making minimum wage and it would only be background work. All the good auditions are not even announced to the public anymore. How many times do you pick up the paper and see a big advertisement for auditions for a huge major movie that's going to star… I don't know… Hayden Panettiere or Chris Carmack…" **(A/N: Yeah. I just went there. Plot-Ception!** )

"Well it sounds like he's done his research," Kody's mom chimed in after listening for quite some time.

"Why don't you take him?" Kody's dad replied.

Kody's mom cut her eyes and made a stupid face that screamed, _Are you even serious right now?_

"I'll take you," Kody's dad agreed. "But we don't sign anything until we know they're legit."

"Annette said if they are legit they won't pressure you into signing anything."

* * *

 _"May or may not have big news tomorrow…"_ Kody texted Kierra and then posted the same thing to Facebook. The wolf sat on the futon below his bunk bed. His legs were on the backrest and his back was on the seat so that he laid upside down on it. He was such a rebel.

 _"Does it have anything to do with what you told me earlier?"_ Kierra replied quickly. Kody knew that whenever Kierra replied right away, she was really interested in what he had to say.

 _"…Maaaaaaaayyyyybeee…"_ Kody replied. Drawing out the syllables in the word "maybe" was something he and Kierra did often when they were purposely withholding information from each other for the fun of it. It was one of their very many inside jokes.

 _"Ugh! So mean! By the way, you're going to the sleepover tomorrow, right?"_

Kody gasped. He had forgotten the whole cast of the drama club was having a sleepover that Thursday night to celebrate the completion of the play. The party started at 6:00 p.m. and it was twenty miles east of Nashville out in the country. His interview was at 7:00 p.m. and according to internet maps, the agency office was actually ten miles south of Nashville in a suburb called Brentwood, which was sometimes nicknamed "The Beverly Hills of Nashville" because it was so nice and the standard and cost of living was very high. _"To be honest, I forgot about it…. but yes I will definitely come. I'll just have to be a little late. I have an… 'appointment' at 7:00 in Brentwood and then my dad and I were going to go to Whole Foods together but I may just have to drive straight to the party while he heads on. Crap. I'll wing it though. I always do. ;)"_

 _"Okay mister,"_ Kierra texted.

Kody rolled his eyes and was about to rush downstairs to tell his dad there needed to be a change in transportation plans when his phone buzzed again. It was Garth.

 _"Dude, was there caffeine in that smoothie? I went to the gym before school this morning but I'm back because I have so much energy! Did 30 pull-ups one right after the other, couple sets of bench presses, and like twenty seated rows. I mean, I already did so much this morning I should be dead tired…"_

Kody shook his head. _"It's Starbucks, man. They put some sort of caffeine in their iced water, I'm sure."_

Garth texted Kody back several symbols indicating an indecipherable curse word. Kody ran downstairs to tell his dad they would have to take two cars, both of which did not get very good gas mileage, all the way to Brentwood so that Kody could attend his sleepover. When he returned to his room, there were four messages: three from Garth and another one from Kierra. Kody started with Garth's text… erm, texts.

Garth Text 1: _"Dang it… I might be getting addicted. I want more."_

Garth Text 2: _"Wait, just did another heavy chest press. I feel way better."_

Garth Text 3: _"Crap I'm so tired man… I don't know if I can drive home. I think I'll sleep at the gym tonight."_

Kody typed back, _"It's called a caffeine crash man. Just go home and sleep. "_

 _"…okay, but if there's a few dumbells missing tomorrow, I was not snuggling them in my sleep…"_

"What?" Kody said aloud. "What does that even mean? Note to self: never give Garth Starbucks coffee. He can't even handle one of their smoothies." Then he opened Kierra's text.

 _"Oh! My sister Lilly got asked out by Garth to go to dinner and a movie next Saturday night! You have NO IDEA how excited she got!"_

Kody smiled. Kierra would always rave about how much of a gianormous crush Lilly had on Garth. And Kierra seemed very supportive of Garth's invitation. Maybe now was a good time for Kody to do something about his always growing crush on Kierra...

* * *

 **Author's Note: That's a wrap to chapter 5!**

 **Let me know what you think! I'm open to plot suggestions, but I'm not taking OCs. Most of this lines up with my real life last year but hey, it is a story so I'll have fun with it. If you do want to suggest something, please PM me so I can directly respond to you. :)**

 **Don't forget to ask about the Fairly Oddparents reference if interested.**

 **Also I got a third job today. Actor. Check. Corporate retail. Check. Small business store. Check. May quit the corporate retail thing. It's gross.**

 **I'm a busy wolfy.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Hey guys, got a nice length chapter for ya, and this one does have a little bit of a romantic arc building between a couple of hormonal teen wolves... Oh whoops, did I say "hormonal" out loud?**

 **Kody: Shut up!**

 **Me: We both know you're hormonal!**

* * *

 **Chapter Six**

The next evening, at 7:05, Kody and his dad took a seat on a leather couch in an office. There were a few other wolves, some way older than Kody and some way younger than Kody, that had come to the "open talent call" at the agency. A short woman with blonde hair stood up in front of everyone.

"Hi everyone," she began addressing the gathering, "my name's Cheryl and welcome to Williams Talent Agency! So we don't have much time, I mean, I would like to actually sleep tonight, ha ha ha!" Cheryl laughed while Kody's dad stared with a funny look on his face. "Anyway, basically I'd like to meet each one of you, but we just don't have time for that right now. So I'm going to pass out a script appropriate for your age range and you'll have about five minutes to review it before you come up here and perform it on camera. I'll be showing the videos to the head booking agent and we'll interview and offer a contract with the talent we're interested in at a later date, okay?"

Kody shrugged. He turned to his father, who had a skeptical look over his muzzle. When he looked up, Cheryl stood in front of him with a script. "You don't have tats, do you?"

"Tats?" Kody asked.

"Tattoos. You've got a long sleeve shirt on and I just need to make sure you don't have any tattoos," she explained.

Kody shook his head. "No, I don't. My parents wouldn't stand for it," Kody chuckled.

"How old are you?" Cheryl asked.

"Seventeen. I'll be eighteen in three months though," Kody smiled.

"Perfect," Cheryl said as she gave Kody a script and then moved on.

Five minutes later, Cheryl stood again at the front of the room. "We'll start youngest and then move to oldest so we can get all the kids out of here early since it is kind of late and it's a school night."

Before he knew it, Kody had read a commercial script right in front of a group of wolves he'd never met before with perfect annunciation, proper stance, and a fine commercial smile. When the office was empty, save Kody, his dad, and the agent, Kody walked up to her. "Hi Cheryl, I just wanted to introduce myself formally and give you the headshot and resume we talked about on the phone." Kody handed her his materials.

Cheryl smiled widely. "Thanks so much for remembering, Kody! Listen, we're going to be calling the people we're interested in sometime tomorrow morning. Are you available to come in for an in depth interview if we decide we're interested?"  
"Yeah, absolutely!" Kody's tail wagged.

"Perfect. Now don't get too excited just yet," Cheryl gestured to his tail, "but if it's okay, I just need your cell number."

Kody gave her his number.

"Alright! We'll let you know. Bye guys," she waved to the two males as they exited the building.

* * *

"I don't know about her…" Kody's dad shrugged. "She seems a little… full of it."

"She's a talent agent, Dad. She's supposed to be a little… eccentric. And this is Brentwood."

Kody's dad shrugged again, now standing in front of his truck. "Alright, well, have fun at the party. What time will you be home?"

Kody smiled. "For sure by 11:00 a.m. I want to leave by 10:00."

Kody's dad frowned. "Nah come on, don't leave too early."

"Dad, 10:00 is not that early. It's a sleepover. You just party till you crash, then the party is basically over when you wake up in the morning."

"Is Kierra going to be there?"

Kody nodded.

"Well then, you should definitely take your time!" Kody's dad winked.

"DAD!"

* * *

The director of the drama cast, who was hosting the sleepover, had a thirty acre farm out in the country just east of Nashville. There was a farm house, shed, barn, fences for some animals, and several trees. Kody came in when they had already started the movie in the living room; the movie was actually just a video recording of the play they had performed just a week ago. He helped himself to some popcorn and laid on the floor, in the middle of a group of girls. Kody was exceptionally comfortable around girls, since he had grown up with three younger sisters. He found that he associated with them better than he did with guys, usually, and on more than one occasion he would be completely oblivious to the fact that he was the only guy in the room because he was so comfortable. He was not impervious to teases from the girl groups, however.

"Hey boo!" one of the females called out!

"Ugh," Kody rolled his eyes. He sat beside her. "Hi Kylie," he smiled.

"Haha! You're so done with me messing with you, aren't you?" she asked. She was not attracted to him, she was just really friendly to any guy that was comfortable with it, and Kody was.

Kody shrugged. "Nah, I don't care really."

When the movie finished, all the wolves ran outside to play games in the barn. Some of the girls had decorated the barn earlier with confetti, streamers, lights, and other celebratory things to recognize the drama club's achievement at pulling off the production. They played capture the flag, freeze tag in the dark, and dodge ball. Hours passed with ease. Kody was on his way back to the house when Kierra called down to him from up in the loft. "Kody!" she yelled. She was seated in the loft, legs dangling out the opening a story off the ground. She patted the empty place next to her beckoning Kody to join her. Kody smiled and ran up the stairs in the barn to the loft. He sat beside Kierra and thrusted his legs out over the ledge, letting them hang.

"Hey Kierra," Kody smiled as he scooted in to be closer to her.

Kierra giggled, her tail starting to wag. "I feel like we haven't had a lot of one on one time together, Kody," she sighed. "Mind if we just sit here and talk?"

"No!" Kody said a little too quickly. He kept his cool. "I mean, I love just sitting and talking. I don't mind at all."

"You uh… you heard I broke up with Nathan a month ago, right?" she asked.

"Well, you never told me the full story, but yeah, I kind of knew. You stopped talking about him as much as you did and kind of seemed to be avoiding him at school," Kody reasoned.

"Damn," Kierra cursed. "I hope it wasn't too obvious. I hate to be causing drama."

"Hey, don't worry about it! Shit happens," Kody felt like cursing after he heard her cursing. "I mean, causing drama is making a huge deal about the shit after it happens. You can't always prevent something from happening but you can influence the way you deal with it."

Kierra smiled. "Gosh I love talking to you. You're so… I don't know… put together! You just get everything."

Kody shrugged. "Nah, I don't get everything."

Kierra elbowed him.

"Ow! What?"

"That's for looking like you understand everything when you don't! Sly dog!"

Kody laughed and nudged her back.

"Well… anyway," Kierra sighed. "I just kind of felt like… Nate and I weren't really connecting. I always had to be the one to ask him to do stuff. He never came up to me, I had to come up to him. And I got a vibe from him, like something was not right. So we took a break but then, I guess what really set the nail in the coffin was he found another girl just like that that he took out and went dancing with. And when I saw him with her, I realized how much I really meant to him. I was completely dispensable."

"I'm sorry," Kody frowned, looking Kierra deep in the eye the whole time.

"What are you thinking about?" Kierra asked.

"Huh?"

"You're looking me deep in the eye. You're listening intently, but you're thinking too. I can see it."

"Oh! Well, to be honest, I can't believe he'd treat you that way. And I thought he was too tall. And he's kinda immature."

"Yeah he was tall. Kissing was weird. And he was immature. I guess I have a problem with that. I want a mature boyfriend."

"You'd think it'd be easier to find one."

"You'd think," Kierra agreed. She rolled her eyes. "I'm so done with high school dating."

Kody leaned in to hug her, tight.

* * *

Kody woke up the next morning to his cell phone ringing. It was 8:00 a.m. He had not gone to bed until shortly after he finished talking with Kierra, around 2:00 a.m. Trying to catch his phone before it went to voicemail, Kody cleared his throat, shook himself out to get his blood flowing so he would not sound sleepy, and answered the call. "Hello?"

" _Hey Kody, Cheryl, Williams Talent. I'm just calling to let you know we are interested in interviewing you today. Shelby's our head booking agent and she loved your tape and is definitely interested in working with you. I also told her how well prepared you seemed, and that further impressed her. So what time this afternoon would be good for you to come in and interview with us?_ "

"Um, gosh, I'll have to check with my dad!" Kody choked out still worried he sounded sleepy.

" _No problem! I've got a 2:00 and a 4:00 available and we would need at least thirty minutes with you, most likely up to an hour depending on how many questions you guys have for us._ "

"I'll call you right back," Kody said before hanging up.

" _Do the 2:00,_ " Kody's dad said on the other line. It sounded like he was in his truck on the way to his office. "I did not go to Whole Foods last night so we can go today after the meeting and hopefully be out of town before rush hour hits."

"Will do," Kody agreed.

" _See you then,_ " Cheryl said quickly before hanging up again. Kody looked at the time readout for the call. Twenty seconds. She certainly did not waste any time

* * *

 **Author's Note: And there you have it! Filler chapter, we're gonna have some more excitement in the next couple of chapters and a nice healthy dose of DRAMA! :D :D :D :D Family drama with Kody's clan and then high school drama with friends. Get excited. What, it keeps it interesting? Oh yeah. The network (me) has also ordered a double to triple dose of romance in upcoming installments. So I'll be in and out of meetings with the director (me) and the producer (also me) over the next few days so we can figure out how to work this in.  
**

 **Be on the lookout for another short story (one to three chaps) or one shot with Garth and Lilly. Word on the street is, it may turn into a lemon... That's just a rumor though, you'll have to check with the source.**

 **Kierra: You are the source, dummy!**

 **Me: Oh yeah.**

 **I've basically been up since 1:00 a.m. don't judge me.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Sorry guys... I have three jobs now and I'm student directing in a play here in town as well as acting in it and going on professional video auditions. Whew. Busy week. I hardly sleep now if I want to get anything done. :) This chapter was written and produced in the lobby of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. :o Pretty fun place to go! Check it out! I try and go in once a month just for the atmosphere. Makes me feel creative.**

* * *

 **Chapter Seven**

Kody left the party at 10:00 a.m. that morning, just as he had told his dad he would the night before. It took him an hour and a half to drive home; the remnants of late rush hour traffic were still on the highway and took a toll on Kody's driving speed. When he pulled into his driveway, it was 11:31. Kody met his mom inside the house.

"Congrats on the interview! Are you nervous?" she asked.

"A little," Kody confessed as he dashed up the stairs to put his stuff away. He returned to finish the conversation with his mom three minutes later.

"I hate when you do that." Kody's mom said, sounding like she was picking a fight.

"What?" Kody asked.

"You come in and go straight upstairs all the time and haven't seen me in a whole day!"

"MOM! It was a day! Relax! And you see me everyday anyway and I always run upstairs and put my stuff away before I talk to you, you know that!" Kody defended himself, upset at how his mom picked petty things to be upset about.

"Why can't you ever just sit and have a conversation with me?"

"I can and I do way more than most wolves do with their parents."

Kody's mom rolled her eyes and waved him away. "Whatever. Go do what you were going to do."

"I'm done now and I can talk to you," Kody reasoned.

"Whatever, I don't wanna talk now," she turned and walked away.

 _She gets mad at me for doing something and then does the exact thing she was mad at me for… ugh!_ Kody screamed mentally as he dashed upstairs to shower, change, and prepare for his dad to come home and take him to Brentwood for his interview. As he ran around the house ironing clothes, unpacking his overnight bag, eating random things in the kitchen for lunch, and brushing up on a monologue he already knew for his audition, his phone rang. It was Robert.

" _Hey man, what's going on?_ " Robert asked, sounding very calm, bored even.

"Oh you know, just running around the house doing everything at once to get ready for my interview today at the agen… I mean, uh, office place… thing," Kody caught himself, remembering he was keeping his exact progress a secret from his friends until something happened. He wanted it to be a secret because in the professional show business world, project confidentiality is worshipped and admired. Best to go ahead and get in the habit of it. And there was also the slight chance he would not be able to get anywhere with his dream, and he did not want to look like a failure.

" _You got a job interview?_ " Robert asked, confused.

"Yeah… I mean no! I mean… sorta…?" Kody shrugged. "Anyway, yeah I have an interview and that's all I'll say. It's in Brentwood and I'm running around the house on about four hours of sleep trying to get clothes ready, unpack from last night, gather everything I need, shower and make myself presentable… and oh yeah it's nice to eat food and survive too."

" _Wow… do you ever take a break?_ " Robert asked.

"Well I sleep in once a week but yeah that's about it," Kody laughed. Over a pause, he caught his breath and then continued. "I don't know man. Just when I think I have some time, something else pops up."

" _And meanwhile, I'm bored over here with nothing to do. I need a job._ "

"Can't you just work for your dad?" Kody asked as he steamed a dress shirt on the ironing board.

" _Yes… and no. He kind of wants me to be his assistant, but I have a whole lot to learn until then. Lately I just help in the shipping facility when there's large orders and sometimes I work as an intern in his office answering phones. He doesn't really pay me though._ "

"I wish my dad would let me work at his law office more often," Kody sighed as he put his shirt on and buttoned it, top to bottom. "But he doesn't really like his family in his business. I need a job too. There's no way I'm going back to that sub shop place." Kody shuddered. "That was a living hell."

" _I've never worked fast food and I never plan to._ "

"Good!"

* * *

At 12:50 p.m., Kody called his dad, practically panicking. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" he yelled. His dad was almost always a few minutes late to everything. Kody liked to be perfectly on time to the minute to everything. Kody and his dad fought a lot whenever they had to go somewhere at a certain time together.

" _Pulling into the driveway… relax!_ " Kody's dad sighed.

Kody ran downstairs and stood on the back patio, waiting. A minute later, his dad pulled into the driveway in his large, white truck. Kody ran and got in the passenger side, but his dad turned off the engine and got out. "Where are you going?" Kody panicked. "Dad, it's 12:50! Please don't make me late!"

Kody's dad growled. "I just have to go in and get the Whole Foods bags, relax. Come in with me if you want."

"I'll wait here, so it doesn't take longer."

"It only takes an hour to get to Brentwood."

"Yeah, when I drive it because I go 80…. I mean, I drive… swiftly!" Kody laughed nervously, still trying to hide from his parents that he was a speed demon driver. "I mean, what if there's traffic?! Dad, we can't be late to this! I'm providing an image to these people and I want it to be a good one and I want them to know they can count on me for jobs and auditions if they sign me! This is really, really important to me!"

Kody's dad sighed. "I know bud, I'll be right back…" he left and went into the house.

Ten minutes later, Kody couldn't contain himself. He put his paw on the door handle and was about to pull when he saw his dad come out, the bags in hand. Kody sat down again and buckled.

Kody's dad slowly got into the truck, opening the back door to toss the bags on the seat before he himself jumped up into the driver's seat. "Don't worry… we'll be on time!" Kody's dad assured.

Kody sighed and tried to relax for the journey, studying his monologue script whenever he felt he needed to double check himself.

* * *

Sure enough, on the exit ramp to Brentwood from the interstate, there was a long line of cars all waiting to turn at the intersection, which lacked a stoplight.

"Ugh! I hate traffic jams! You'd think with all the money in this town they could put in a light at the top of the ramp!" Kody slumped back into the seat.

"Relax! You need to look calm and cool. Besides, it's only 1:55 and they're two minutes away. We'll make it!"

* * *

Kody and his dad sat down in the Williams Talent Agency office minutes later. The traffic was bad on the ramp earlier, but it moved swiftly.

"Alright, let's see…." Cheryl began talking as Kody and his dad sat down in two chairs across from the desk. When she spoke, she sounded like she had said the same thing twenty times already. "Let me tell you a little about the agency. We've been here for two decades, we are non union, meaning we're not affiliated with a union because this is Tennessee and you don't have to be affiliated… um… 50% of the work we send our actors and models out on is commercial print, so if you sign with us today you'd have to be willing to be a model as well as an actor… um…"

"Wait!" Kody interrupted Cheryl's rant. "You're interested in signing me… today?!" Kody was shocked.

"Oh yeah," Cheryl nodded.

"But you only saw one little script from him… he has a monologue prepared and everything…" Kody's dad chimed in.

"Yeah, I brought a monologue to perform today if you want." Kody echoed his dad.

Cheryl threw her paws up in the air. "YES! You see?! This… THIS!" she pointed to Kody excitedly. "This is exactly why we want to sign you right now! You're so prepared! You know what's going on and you're just a natural! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone in Nashville, let alone a good looking teen guy, who is young, serious, prepared, professional, and ready to work?! No, you know what, I'll show you!" She threw a pile of papers to the side on her desk and dug her laptop out. "Normally my laptop is on top, but I was going through some things earlier this morning, haha!" she laughed as she opened up the device. "Alright! See this?"

Kody and his dad leaned in to look at the computer. Cheryl was navigating through some sort of database.

"This is our roster. It has every single actor and model we have with us on it. Okay? So let's see… I select male, age 16-18, brown fur… and… yeah. We have three and none of them are your height or weight either." Cheryl showed the screen to Kody and his father. There were three pictures of good looking, male wolves on the left side, and a description of what they could do on the right side. "Now you may think 'Oh, she already has three guys my age with brown fur. Why does she want to sign me?' Because…." Cheryl took the laptop and changed the statistics. "Look at what happens when we select female, 16-18, brown fur…" She rotated the laptop to face the two wolves again. There were at least twenty female wolves, all very good looking and several of them at similar height and weights. "See?! There's twenty of them! And that's just brown fur… wait till you see blonde, black, red, white… The point is, there's a severe shortage of talented young males in the area! I think if we get you in, set you up with some more pictures, maybe a couple classes from reputable directors and coaches… I think you're going to see a lot of auditions."

Kody looked at his dad, who had his paw to his chin to express interest. "Hm…" his dad said.

Kody smiled. "Listen, it all sounds great but I've got some questions for you too."

"Shoot!" Cheryl said as she sipped a green, nasty looking smoothie that sat on the shelf of a bookcase behind her desk.

"Okay, um, what kind of work are you talking about? Where is it, what kind of shows, what's the usual pay?"

Cheryl turned back to face Kody. "Atlanta. Every major TV show and movie we get auditions for shoots in Atlanta. Now we have stuff for commercials all the time in Nashville…"

"Music videos?" Kody asked.

"Music videos, yes, we do a lot of music videos but they don't pay half of what a TV show will pay you for a role. But they're a lot of fun," Cheryl smiled.

"Okay, what about travel expenses?" Kody asked.

Cheryl nodded. "We suggest having some money saved up in your bank account so you can cover those on your own if you have to. But whenever you get a major show, it will always pay enough to travel down there, stay as many nights as the show needs you, and sometimes, for the really big stuff, they will fly you down and set you in a hotel themselves. It just takes a while to get paid or reimbursed sometimes so you have to have funds in advance. We had an actress shoot for Vampire Diaries last week. Production did not pay for her hotel, but she worked five days and made eight hundred a day plus overtime on days lasting more than eight hours. And they paid for all her gas and meals on set. You know… that's four thousand right there. Plus overtime. Can you go to Atlanta for five days on four thousand with free gas? Yeah you can!"

"Wow," Kody smiled.

Cheryl sipped her smoothie, then continued. "So, any other questions?"

"Yeah, how much do you take when I book something?"

"Ten percent on union projects, twenty percent on non union projects. Major shows are always union projects."

Kody nodded. "Well?" he said looking at his dad.

Kody's dad shrugged. "I don't know… what else does he need to do?"

"Well, until he's eighteen he'll have to have a parent or guardian on set with him at all times. It's the law. We need a couple more pictures shot in order to best market him, but we can hook you up with someone here in town that will do it well and for a decent price. We would also need him to sign up for Actors Access, which is free, so we can put him in Breakdown Services and submit his resume to casting directors. I'd advise you to let us put him on our website for a small fee so locals can see him too," Cheryl smiled.

"I don't know… is this what you really want Kody?"

Kody nodded with a big smile.

"Okay… I guess we'll do it," Kody's dad agreed.

"Great! Let me go get the contracts printed and then I need you guys to pick a day to have some body shots done to submit to casting directors for modeling gigs."

And with that, Kody was signed to Williams Talent Agency.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Kody is a little high strung. He's like me. Yes, I'm a little high strung. Anyway, as you can see there are a few things with Kody and his folks that prevent total peace and harmony... let's see if we can get those ironed out.**

 **I will be posting a one shot soon! Something I really want to write! :D**

 **Please review! I'm like not sleeping tonight in order to get this up and then the one shot at least started. :3**


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